Bussey’s Bomb Squad gathering a crowd, and spirit, for Rams

Rams travel to Westport to take on Staples Friday night

Bussey’s Bomb Squad, the New Canaan High School student cheering section, being led in the ‘Two-Point Goggles’ chant by senior Dan Makela (fourth from left), at Tuesday night’s boys varsity basketball game against Darien. The Rams won in overtime, 58-50. (Julie Butler photo)

A year ago, the New Canaan High School boy’s varsity basketball team had nothing — and pretty much was nothing — to cheer about, ending the 2011-12 season with a 2-18 record. This year, however, there is a new head coach, a renewed team confidence, a 4-4 record in the FCIAC and 4-6 overall in the still fairly-new season. After a win over defending county champions Bassik, there are suddenly lots of spectators, including the student cheering section called Bussey’s Bomb Squad, which only made it to one home game during the last year’s basketball season.

Rule No. 1: No matter the score it is never a bad time to root against Darien.

Since the Bomb Squad first showed up at New Canaan’s home basketball game on Friday, Jan. 4, against Bassick of Bridgeport, the team has won four of five games (three on its own court), including Tuesday night’s showdown against rival Darien.

“I like to think that we helped get the team pumped up,” Dan Makela, a senior and co-leader of Bussey’s Bomb Squad, said of the team’s dramatic 52-51 win on Friday, Jan. 11, against Brien McMahon High School. “A lot of the support from the Bomb Squad might have helped lead to the win.”

Even new head coach Mike Evans told the Advertiser after the Friday night’s victory that he was impressed: “We gave Bussey’s Bomb Squad the bleachers [behind the team] in exchange for appropriate cheering, appropriate remarks and nothing degrading to the other team,” Evans said. “It was classy behavior and Tuesday [Jan. 15 against Darien], we should get them again.”

And get them — and another win — he did: the Rams paddled over the Blue Wave in overtime.

History of the Bomb Squad

“The sixth man of the New Canaan Basketball Team. The ‘X Factor’ of the NCHS Gym. The Game Changer.”

This is how Bussey’s Bomb Squad is described on its Facebook page, which is how the leaders galvanize and get the word out about which games to attend en masse; the members of the Facebook group totals nearly 830.

The student cheering section — which can number in the hundreds, depending upon the sport it is supporting — got its beginnings during the NCHS basketball season of 2008-09, when Jeff Bussey (now retired from teaching at the high school) was still at the helm of the varsity basketball team, by then-senior Frank Granito, who thought it would be a great idea to help raise school spirit to a new level by organizing a bunch of fellow students to chant and cheer, choreographing several “routines” as it were.

The spirited group is not meant to substitute for the high school’s cheerleading squad, but instead complements the girls.

After providing rousing team spirit for the 2008-09 boy ballers, Bussey’s Bomb Squad began attending home hockey and football games as well.

“The squad has gone to other team sports, mostly boys’, although sometimes girls’,” Dan said, “but now it’s mostly basketball, hockey and football.”

Dan said that the Bomb Squad primarily attends Rams’ home games, but travels to some away games as well.

His co-leader is fellow senior Matt Burch.

“The leaders are always seniors, and after school ends, those seniors choose the next leaders from the junior class,” Dan said.

According to its Facebook page, these are the simple rules of the squad, called “Rules to Remember:”

1. No matter the score it is never a bad time to root against Darien.

2. For each and every game you attend make sure your presence is known.

3. Freshmen, it’s not lame if you chant, its lame if you just take up space.

4. Seniors in front. Sophomores we know you guys don’t cheer but seriously, when we tell you to move that means move.

Getting (respectably) rowdy

Evans said the energy in the gym last Friday night due to the presence of the Bomb Squad was “tremendous.”

“This town has been lacking in its basketball culture and enthusiasm,” he said of the high school team, “and this support is something the seniors especially — who have been through years of lackluster seasons — deserve and they feed off it.”

Although when the cheering section came to the first home game on Friday, Jan. 4, they sat in the New Canaan-side bleachers across from the Rams bench, by the following Friday night, Evans allowed them to sit on the bleachers directly behind the team.

“It’s a great energy booster,” said junior Andrew Penchuk, a member of the varsity team. “It really helps you at the beginning and at the end of the game, because that’s when emotions are at their highest, especially at home games.”

The Bomb Squad has a set repertoire of seven or eight chants, and then some the leaders just make up throughout a game — at Tuesday’s game against Darien, for example, they repeatedly chanted “Beiber! Beiber!” to try and disarm a Darien player who bears an uncanny resemblance to the pop star, and who also happens to be Darien’s top scorer.

One chant, “The Rollercoaster,” is a more spirited and creative version of the tried-and-true crowd-pleaser “The Wave,” and the “Two-Point Goggles,” which is employed when the Rams have two free-throw shots. The students simulate eyeglasses with their thumbs and forefingers, keeping two fingers on each hand pointing up, to signify two points.

At the game last Friday night, several parents sitting on the bleachers on the opposite side of the gym theorized that the squad was pantomiming “focus.”

“I guess it could mean that, too,” laughed Dan.

Senior Louis Hagopian, who has been attending games with the squad since his freshman year, has also been on the receiving end of the enthusiastic crowd support.

“As a football player, it was great to know the student body always had your back,” he said. “There was nothing better than seeing your friends going crazy in the stands.”

The squad, of course, isn’t just about the chants and cheers, it’s also about the camaraderie.

Asked why he enjoys being a part of Bussey’s Bomb Squad, Dan replied, “I just really like supporting the Rams. It’s so great to have everybody cheering.”